You remember how Apple decided with iPhone 7 that they no longer need headphone jacks, right? With iPhone 12 IIRC, they decided that shipping chargers is no longer required, too.
I guess I can see where it is going. First they removed the jack, then the chargers. The next thing they'll remove will probably be the frontal camera, then the fingerprint sensor and so on...
...and then, to own an iPhone, you will have to build it from scratch.
That's great! Though I doubt that an average iPhone owner could install Gentoo, at least they would be able to construct their phone from scratch. Such a strategy may also let Apple cut costs on the manual factory labor they buy in China, which will be good for the US from the geopolitical standpoint since less money will go to China, and for the planet since less manual factory labor means less global warming. Everyone wins! Can't wait until they remove the GSM module from the iPhone 30!
No, but they can limit the functionality and offer it only for a fee.